Sign



Patented June 21, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- G'. R. PYPER. SIGN.

I N VEN TOR. y GeoryePy/ver APPLICATION FILED NOV.2I,1919.

WITNESS:

A TT ORNE Y.

G. R. PYPER.

SIGN.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 21,1919.

1,382,225. Patented June 21, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WTNES;

A TTORNE Y.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORG-E R. PYPER, 0F SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.

sien.

19382,-2256 Specification of Letters Patent. Patented June 21, 1921, fApplication mea November 21, 191e. serial No. 339,670.

To all lwhom t may concern.'

Be' it known that I, GEORGE R. PYPER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt ake yand State ofUtah, have invented new and useful Improvements in Signs, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in illuminated and animated signsand is designed to produce a simple and novel animating member providedwith vanes eX- tending therefrom so that it can be readily rotated by acurrent of air, as from an electric' fan.

In the drawings: Fi ure 1 is a front elevation of a sign embo ying thepresent invention, the illuminatingdevices and parts of the operatingmechanism being shown by dotted lines.

. Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, showing the manner ofmounting the rotatable .member and the circuit breaker operated thereby.

Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive illustrate different l:designs of the front 'ofthe rotatable mem- Referring to the drawings in detail, wherein likecharacters of reference denote corres onding parts, the referencecharacter 15 in icates the sign member, which, as shown and described inmy Patent No. 1,251,282, dated December 25, 1917, may be constructed ofcardboard or other material and provided with openings 16, for thepassage of light, the said openings'being preferably covered by a stripof translucent material 17. These openings may be arranged after. themanner of the patent previously referred to, or they may constitute aborder for the sign member, as shown in Figs. 1,2 and 3.

Located at'the rear of the signlmember 15, is a casing 18, the saidcasing having mounted therein a shaft'19, the *latter being arrangedsubstantially at right angles with respect to the sign. Mounted for freerotation upon the shaft 19, is a member 20. This member, as shown inFigs. 3 to 8, may be provided with a plurality of spirally or radiallyarranged openings 21,' and upon its rear face with vanes or projections22. These vanes or rojections are so arranged that a current of airdirected toward preferably one half of the rear face of the rotat! ablemember 20 will cause the latter to rotate upon the shaft 19, the speedof such serve to prevent longitudinal movement of the member 20 upon thesaid shaft.

Positioned within the casing 18, behind the rotatable member 20, is asource of light 24, herein shown as an electric bulb. Any number ofbulbsdesired may be arranged toprovide the light and they may be of the samecolors, or of different colors, as shown in my previous patent.

Also arranged behindl .thesign member 15, is a casing 25, within whichis arranged a source of light inthe form of incandescent lamps 26, thesaid casing being provided with an extension 27, having also arrangedtherein incandescent lamps'28. The lamps 26 are designed to illuminateadvertising, or other matter, formed by perforating the sign'member andcovering .the said perforations with suitable translucent material, orthe advertising or otherv matter may be formed by any other desiredmeans.y There is illustrated in the drawings the extension 27, which isprovided with an opening 29, which is covered by suitable translucentmaterial, the said opening being arranged to represent a shaft, or boltof lightning, the elect being increased by illuminating andextinguishlng the lamps 28 in a manner to preferably placed in the'bottom of the casing with its armature shaft at right angles to theaxis-.of the rod `19,- so that a strong current of air will strike thevanes 22 on the lower half only of the disk 20.

1t i-s also the purpose of the invention to alternately illuminate andextinguish the lamps 24, 26 and 28, and to accomplish this, there isprovided a circuit breaker, which is connected with and operated by therotatable mem-ber 20. `This circuit breaker is in the form of a cylinderor wheel 31, which may be formed on or detachalbly secured to therotatable member and provided around its periphery with'spaced contactmembers 32, suitably insulated apart. The extremities of the contactmembers 32 project out- Wardly beyond the periphery of the cylinder orWheel 31, and are adapted to conta/ct with a stationary contact memberor brush 33. This contact member or brush 33 is mounted upon an arm 34,secured upon the rod 19. The contacts 32 will be placed in 'branchescontaining some of the lam-ps 24, 26 and 28 so that they will bealternately illuminated in a manner well known to those skilled in theart.

ln Fig. 5 of the drawings there is illustrated a direct drive for theshaft 19, which carries the rotatable member 20. This co-nsists insecuring a pulley '40 to the member 44, is identical 20 and operating.lthesame through the medium of a belt 41, driven by a pulley 42, from ashaft 43, which is in turn operated by an electric fan or motor whichoperates rlhe diameters ofv the rotatable member. the pulleys 40 and 42,are such as to cause the shaft 19 to rotate at a greater speed than theshaft 43. In this form of the invention, the circuit breaker, which isindicated at in construction with the one previously described, butinstead of .Ibeing mounted upon the shaft 19 is mounted upon the shaft43.

Figs. 3 to 8 inclusive illustrate different forms of the rotatablemember 20, any one of which may Ibe substituted for -the one shown inFigs. 1 and 2, by removing the shaft 19 from its bearings, and replacingit with the desired form of member 20 to meet the particularrequirements of the part to be animated.

The invention is susceptible of various changes in its form, proportionsand minor details of con-struction and the right is herein reserved tomake such changes as properly fall within the scope of the appendedclaims.

Having described the invention, what is claimed is: l

1. In an apparatus of the class described,

\a rotatable animating member having portions thereof removed to permitthe intermittent passage of light therethrough as' it is rotated andhaving radially disposed vanes extending laterally from the lbodythereof to be engaged by a lcurrent of air for rotating the same, incombination with a casing having a display surface parallel to theanimating member, and alight in the casing back of the animating member,substantially as and vfor the purpose described.

2. An illuminated sign embodying a member having light transmittingportions, e a source of light spaced from said member, a rotatablemem'ber interposed between the rst mentioned member and the source oflight for alternately cutting 0H and permitting the lights rays to reachthe said rst mentioned member, laterally extending radially disposedvanes carried -by the rotatable member, and means f-or supplying acurrent of air to the said rotatable member to operate the same.

' In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

GEORGE R. PYPER.

